This is an odd report. After all, British authorities banned me from the country for saying that Islam had a doctrine of warfare against unbelievers. So apparently the British authorities don’t believe that Islam has a doctrine of warfare against unbelievers, and think it is offensive to point out that it does. Yet they let in the Saudi jihad preacher Mohammed al-Arefe the week before they banned me, even though al-Arefe has said: “Devotion to jihad for the sake of Allah, and the desire to shed blood, to smash skulls, and to sever limbs for the sake of Allah and in defense of His religion, is, undoubtedly, an honor for the believer. Allah said that if a man fights the infidels, the infidels will be unable to prepare to fight.” So apparently the British authorities are fine with people thinking that Islam has a doctrine of warfare against unbelievers, as long as one does not oppose that doctrine, but instead believes in it and preaches it.
In light of that, it’s no surprise that there would be an increased risk of jihad attack in Britain, and thousands of Muslims there who support jihadi groups. What is odd is that British intelligence and security agencies would care. To be consistent, they should be seeking out these jihadis not to arrest them, but to surrender to them and declare their fealty to Sharia in the new international hub of Islamic finance.
“SPIES UNCOVERED: 34 terrorist plots against UK thwarted since 7/7 bombings, says MI5 head,” by Owen Bennett for the Express, November 7 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
Speaking in an unprecedented joint appearance before Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, the heads of MI5, MI6 and the GCHQ answered questions in public.
The committee heard that Syria has become a haven for jihadists since the outbreak of the civil war, and hundreds of British citizens have travelled to the country as a result.
MI5 chief Andrew Parker said there are thousands of people living in Britain today who support al Qaida, and the head of MI6 Sir John Sawers warned the threat of terrorist attacks against Britain is increasing.
Asked how concerned he was about terrorist tourism, Mr Parker told the committee: “It has grown recently and is growing at the moment, because of Syria.
“Syria has become a very attractive place for people to go for that reason – those who support or sympathise with the al Qaida ideological message.
“We’ve seen low hundreds of people from this country go to Syria for periods and come back – some large numbers are still there – and get involved in fighting.
“This is partly because of the proximity of Syria and the ease of travel there, but also because it is attractive as what they would see as a jihadi cause.”
Mr Parker said: “It is a very important strand of the threat we face, the way in which there is interaction between people who live in this country who sympathise with or support the al Qaida ideology and then travel to areas where they meet these al Qaida groupings, either al Qaida itself in south Asia or some of these other groupings across other regions.
“The attractiveness to these groupings is that they meet British citizens who are willing to engage in terrorism and they task them to do so back at home, where they have higher impact, in this country.
“We’ve seen that played out in previous plots here, including 7/7.”
The spy chiefs also lambasted the publishing of intelligence documents obtained by American whistle-blower Edward Snowden, which revealed some of the surveillance activities of GCHQ and its American counterpart, the National Security Agency (NSA).
Sir John Sawers was extremely critical of the leaks and the subsequent publication of the documents across the world.
Sir John said: “The case of Edward Snowden has been very damaging. Our adversaries were rubbing their hands together with glee and al Qaida were lapping it up.“…